Pathology

Description of Services

Tissue Procurement

The TPHC provides human tissues to Case Comprehensive Cancer Center member researchers and other researchers on the Case/UH campus, and also serves extramural researchers. The TPHC also assists physicians involved in Cooperative Group studies such as the Children’s Oncology Group and Gynecologic Oncology Group, in the procurement and shipment of specimens to designated study laboratories. Samples not needed for internal research programs are provided to investigators throughout the U.S. through special arrangements.

Human tissues are prospectively procured according to individual researcher requirements including:

    Acceptability of surgical or autopsy samples
    Tissue type
    Diagnosis
    Minimum weight or dimensions
    Necessity for matched normal tissue
    Acceptable time before freezing
    Age range
    Gender
    Race or ethnicity
    Acceptability of tissues from patients that have undergone chemotherapy or radiation treatment
    Frequency and number of samples desired
    Other specified criteria

A wide variety of tissues from over 70 anatomic sites are made available by the TPHC to researchers. Normal, diseased, benign and malignant tissues are obtained, and matched normal adjacent tissues and tissues from different organ sites from the same donor can also be provided when available. Due to the nature of the hospital as a tertiary care medical center, rare types of tissues are often obtainable. Tissue samples are prepared according to user-specified protocols and can be fresh in a medium of choice, fixed in formalin, quick frozen in the vapor phase of liquid nitrogen or snap-frozen by plunging the sample into liquid nitrogen. Frozen tissues are held in the vapor phase of the liquid nitrogen, which is believed to be the best possible means of long-term preservation of tissue samples. Tissues can also be embedded, cut and mounted on slides, and stained upon request. Tissues are made available to Case/ UH researchers immediately following their preparation.

Basic demographic data (age, race, gender) and histopathologic data from Surgical Pathology Reports are provided by the TPHC with the tissues. Chart reviews are conducted on an as-needed basis as a special service to obtain additional requested clinical information. Patient confidentiality is strictly maintained through the use of sample code numbers, de-identification and de-linking procedures.

Histology

The TPHC provides histology, IHC and LCM services to the research community for human and animal tissue studies. For most histological procedures, tissues are embedded in paraffin or OCT. Specimens for paraffin processing should be in cassettes, submersed in formalin, another fixative or buffer following fixation. The fixed tissues are then dehydrated and cleared, and infiltrated with paraffin using a vacuum infiltration processor. The tissues are then embedded in paraffin. Tissues for frozen sectioning should be fast frozen, with or without OCT, and brought to the facility on dry ice. The blocks are sectioned, placed on slides and stained, if desired. Tissues can also be embedded in methacrylate. Routine stains available include:

    H & E
    Methylene Blue
    Mason’s Trichrome
    A variety of other stains (please inquire)

After staining, slides are then coverslipped, viewed for quality, and re-cut if needed. Slides are then cleaned, labeled and returned to the researcher.

Researchers can request to have any one step followed for their specimen. For example, a researcher can ask that their sample simply be processed, processed and embedded only, or brought already embedded to have slides made. Many researchers have unstained slides made for use in their laboratory with one slide in the series H & E stained for comparison purposes. A researcher may also provide unstained slides to the facility for staining. The facility is very flexible in providing services needed by individual laboratories.

Immunohistochemistry (IHC)

Immunohistochemistry and enzyme histochemistry are available for many antigens. Several antigen retrieval techniques are performed with or without heavy metal enhancement. Please contact the facility for more information.

Laser Capture Microdissection (LCM)

Rapid and precise microdissections of histological sections are performed on paraffin and OCT sections of human and animal tissues to capture DNA, RNA, and/or protein from specific neoplastic and normal cells. Digital micrographs are available for the tissues before and after dissection. LCM services require that the researcher or other designated person (pathologist, trained technician) be present during the process to determine the correct cells to be dissected.